Madrid organizers say they are looking at having blue clay courts in the future to better co-ordinate with the colors of their main sponsor.

One of the tournament's outside courts will be set up with blue clay this year for dubious players to test out, tournament director Manolo Santana was quoted as saying by El Periodico de Catalunya. "Once the players see that it is exactly the same as red there will be no problem."

The Ion Tiriac-owned Madrid event is known for its bold attempts to attract publicity, including the introduction of models as ball boys and ball girls when it was an indoor event in the fall.

hmmmm.... considering how full of crap most players are (some not liking paint jobs on their racquets claiming they feel different....), Im pretty sure that most of them will say the courts feel completely off even though technicians say the clay is the same exact stuff.

The US Open changed the color of its courts, as did the events that form the US Open Series, so what's the big deal? The courts at Key Biscayne looked purple....

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Clay is a natural surface, changing the colour of a natural surface is an aberration. It would be a shame if all the great job and effort they put into this tournament ended up on this. I can't believe Santana supports this idea, there are better ways to make a tournament more notorious. They're attention seekers.

Clay is a natural surface, changing the colour of a natural surface is an aberration. It would be a shame if all the great job and effort they put into this tournament ended up on this. I can't believe Santana supports this idea, there are better ways to make a tournament more notorious. They're attention seekers.

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Seems dumb to me too. I like the natural color of clay. What's coming up next? Pink grass? Yikes.

Tiriac is the man. Finally a clay court where the ball is visible...amazing idea. Kinda weak that his reasoning for the change is color coordination with the sponsor :roll: but sometimes good ideas are by accident.

Again and Again. people trying to justify why Nadal won the AO. If the AO is so slow, why didn´t any clay-courter make it to the semi or quarters? why did tsonga make it to the finals in 2008? Stop those posts please

not a fan of the idea. Clay is red and that's the way it should stay. Tiriac should change sponsors instead. Ferrari F1 team is red and they've never had trouble finding sponsors with matching colours.

Again and Again. people trying to justify why Nadal won the AO. If the AO is so slow, why didn´t any clay-courter make it to the semi or quarters? why did tsonga make it to the finals in 2008? Stop those posts please

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I thought it was a harmless joke.

There is no denying the greatness of Nadal, or his incredible achievements. And I think he would have been a great champion in any era. No matter how the courts are playing today, everyone is playing the same courts, so Nadal is getting it done while others do not.

But still, you have to admit that Wimbledon has slowed down drastically since the Sampras era ended. And that may be a good thing, as it has allowed for more baseline rallies and less 1-3 shot tennis. Wimbledon got what they wanted, and it has helped Nadal (and maybe Federer too, as he has won all five of his Wimbledons from the baseline...but he did prove he could play S&V tennis when he beat Sampras in 2001).

That is not a knock against Nadal. It's not like they changed the surface specifically to help Nadal. Circumstances came together in such a way that helped Nadal and other baseliners, and he took advantage. That's what great players do.

And blue clay might be interesting, but I like the red stuff just fine. It can be hard to follow the ball at times, but I can usually adjust.

I also like the idea of blue clay. It would make the matches more enjoyable for the fans, and anything that is more enjoyable for the fans is a good thing. It would be interesting to see how it affects the balls though. If it just makes all the balls blue right away, then it would sort of defeat the purpose, no?

For those who agree with it because it would make the ball more watchable, I guess you would also agree if Wimbledon switched to blue grass. The ball would be more watchable too.
I have a feeling those who agree with blue clay are not fans of clay tennis in the first place.

They probably decided to put blue clay because they're tired of Nadal winning on Clay surfaces. So it gives an impression to guys like Federer, Djokovic and Murray that they are playing on HC so they think they can play their HC tactics to beat Nadal.

Nothing but visionnary images to the HC specialists.

Haha seriously, I think it will be different and I can't wait to see the results.

For those who agree with it because it would make the ball more watchable, I guess you would also agree if Wimbledon switched to blue grass. The ball would be more watchable too.
I have a feeling those who agree with blue clay are not fans of clay tennis in the first place.

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I love the red color. I also love the blue color. As long as they don't do purple, green, yellow, and etc. I'm fine. I like the sliding and high bounces clay has to offer. You got to admit that the Australian Open has awesome colors though.

I love the red color. I also love the blue color. As long as they don't do purple, green, yellow, and etc. I'm fine. I like the sliding and high bounces clay has to offer. You got to admit that the Australian Open has awesome colors though.

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I agree the courts at Australia look gorgeous. It is beautiful to watch tennis on them. All courts should be that color lol.

For those who agree with it because it would make the ball more watchable, I guess you would also agree if Wimbledon switched to blue grass. The ball would be more watchable too.
I have a feeling those who agree with blue clay are not fans of clay tennis in the first place.

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Although it may be partially true that clay is my least favorite surface, you can see the ball fine on green colors.

For those who agree with it because it would make the ball more watchable, I guess you would also agree if Wimbledon switched to blue grass. The ball would be more watchable too.I have a feeling those who agree with blue clay are not fans of clay tennis in the first place.

that was mean
__________________
all we are saying is give peace a chance

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Usually I post tennis quotes in that forum but for once I will talk about something else just because you've written "all we are saying is give peace a chance".
According to John Robertson who wrote the book "The art & music of John Lennon",
"Give peace a chance" wasn't such an off-the-cuff performance at Montréal (Canada) in late May and June 1, 1969, because when John returned to Great Britain
he would have asked Ringo Starr to lay out a new rhythm over the spontaneous and rather amateur backing track provided by the colored and joyful assistance in the hotel room 1742 including Thimothy Leary (whom you can see in the official video) that John "immortalized" in his song lyrics (with Dylan and others),
and John also re-recorded some little parts of his original vocals.
Once in an interview he stated that he didn't remember if it was he or Yoko or both who found the song title.
One last remark : because Lennon was still a Beatle (the group had not yet recorded his "Abbey Road" album with the main sessions between July 1 and August 20, but the first session took place on February 22 for the first recording of Lennon's "I want you (she's so heavy)) he copyrighted the song officially Lennon-McCartney though "Give peace a chance" is not a song belonging to the Beatles catalogue (but to John's as a solo artist) as the duo had ever done since 1962 (when the group published his first single "Love me do") :
whenever a member of that duo created some lyrics or a melody line even though the other one had created nothing, both names were officially credited as song's creators.
When Lennon created "Give peace a chance" in Montréal, McCartney was in Great-Britain and so Paul hadn't helped John at all for this song (in those times except on the phone you couldn't communicate, as we are doing now almost all the time via the Web or the cell phone, with someone else).
Decades later (I'm not sure but probably around the mid-90's, Yoko Ono changed the copyright of "Give peace a chance" and erased McCartney to leave Lennon alone).
Before 1962 you can find songs (not published at the time) copyrighted with only one songwriter of the duo : for instance "I Lost My Little Girl", McCartney's first creation in 1957, is copyrighted McCartney (so no Lennon officially and in reality) or "Cry for a shadow" is copyrighted Harrison/Lennon (with no McCartney).
But from 1962 to 1970 whenever one of the duo created some stuff automatically the name of the other was associated whatever he'd done.
Even in 1970 though Lennon had definitely quit the group on September 20, 1969 but agreed not to make an announcement while manager Allen Klein and the band renegotiated their recording contract ("Abbey Road" was released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom, and 1 October 1969 in the United States),
Lennon's name was copyrighted with McCartney's.

Among songs officially credited Lennon-McCartney you have some where either one or the other had not add any input :
for instance Lennon put absolutely nothing in McCartney's "Yesterday" but his name is credited (it's a 95% song by Paul and about 5% by George Martin who helped Paul's for the string arrangement)
and the same can be said about Lennon's "Julia" (with some little input by Martin), apparently Paul hasn't given any idea in that love song to Lennon's mother but the song is officially credited Lennon/McCartney.

Hope I haven't annoyed you too much with this non-tennis topic.

I get back to tennis : I won't be shocked by a blue clay (but I don't like Tiriac who had been a true crook when he faced the USA in the Davis Cup final 1972).